Letters
Rhymes with ‘Rich’
Class warfare: I don’t dispute that Chantal McCorkle’s experience in jail is unpleasant (Allie Johnson’s “Chantal’s Angels,” November 9). I don’t dispute that her sentence is a little overboard in proportion to the crime.
What offends me is the assumption that she committed no crime, that she was an innocent bystander and should be able to walk out of jail and resume her society life. What a bunch of bunk. The “business” she and her husband ran was a scam. It was a get-rich-quick scheme pandering to the working class, designed to get only two people rich: Chantal and William McCorkle.
Was I supposed to be touched by this story of the wealthy society matrons on their trip to Nepal, lamenting the fate of one of their own? Well, I wasn’t.
It’s a story unworthy of the cover of the Pitch. As a single mom, and as a member of the working class, I was offended.
Christine Hoober
Kansas City, Missouri
Photo Finish
A wrinkle in time: I’d like to thank you for printing that exquisite photo from Manabu Yamanaka’s Gyahtei: Age exhibit (Night & Day, November 2). Had the Pitch not printed it, I probably would have overlooked the listing and never seen such breathtaking work.
In a society obsessed with youth, thinness, and plastic perfection, these photos are a reminder of how truly magnificent the human body is. Every wrinkle, every scar, every birthmark told a story. I hope the Pitch will continue to unearth and publicize hidden gems of art buried in the otherwise barren Kansas City cultural landscape.
Lisa L. Langford
Kansas City, Missouri
Rowland on the River
The welcome wagon: I would like to comment on Bruce Rodgers’ article concerning councilman Jim Rowland and his thorny relationship with Mayor Kay Barnes (“Zone This!” November 9).
In 1995, I went on the Internet and found that the consulting company that I was working for had openings in Kansas City. Ten minutes after I sent an e-mail requesting information on Kansas City consulting opportunities, I received a call from Jim Rowland. He regaled me with tales of a city with true community spirit. A place in the heartland where a family can raise children with proper values, where the people are warm, friendly, and helpful, and where opportunities abound for people in information technology.
The next thing I knew, I was on a plane to KC and being interviewed by DST and American Century, two leading companies, for a consulting position. Both companies offered a position, and two weeks later I loaded up a moving truck and brought my family to Kansas City. After one week of looking for a place to live, we found ourselves in a great neighborhood near Gladstone. We have loved it ever since.
Thanks to Jim Rowland’s persistent and professional dedication to his job, we are now close enough to Wichita for visits to friends and family.
If Jim Rowland does decide to throw his hat in the ring for mayor of this fine city, I will be first in line to support him. Kudos to the Pitch for shining a bit of light on this local councilman, and shame on Kay Barnes for the heavy-handed way in which she removed him from the Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee.
John Colaw
Kansas City, Missouri
The Theater of War
Take a Walker: The snotty review by your supercilious simpleton of Sisters Matsumoto (“History Lessened,” October 26) does a disservice to the playwright, the actors, the audience, and theater across the greater Kansas City area. I didn’t think it possible to make us look more like provincial hillbillies than we already do, but your frat-boy reviewer managed it.
On what basis does Steve Walker judge there is too much “back story”? The audience was attentive and appreciative. They were listening for the inner story of a family unfairly uprooted and dispossessed. Few folks have any idea of what it was like for those who were interned. I give the audience credit for wanting to learn.
Undeterred by his ignorance of theater as craft as well as historical facts about the internment, Walker compounds his felony by badmouthing the actors, the director, and the playwright … and even the lighting! As a Missouri Rep regular, I remember last season’s Inherit the Wind and find the Sisters Matsumoto at least equal to that vehicle in all respects.
That nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished without intelligent criticism is a given, but Walker’s review is condescending and stupid at best. While grudgingly admitting that the shameful consequences of Executive Order 9066 need a “theatrical examination,” his carping examination of the Rep’s Sisters demonstrates that “they jest at scars who never felt a wound.”
William J. Sollner
Arma, Kansas
